Winston-Salem football player shot, killed at Wake Forest party

Najee Ali Baker, a defensive lineman on Winston-Salem State University’s football team, was fatally shot at a party on Wake Forest’s campus early Saturday morning.

Baker was pronounced dead at a local hospital after being treated on the scene, officials said.

Winston-Salem police said they were alerted to the shooting at around 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. It followed an altercation, according to authorities, at a party attended by students from both Winston-Salem and Wake Forest. The two universities are roughly five miles apart.

Both schoolslater confirmed details of the incident, and Baker’s death. “We are deeply saddened by this loss of young life,” Winston-Salem chancellor Elwood Robinson said in a statement. “Mr. Baker was a promising young man. It is truly a tragedy that his life was cut short in an act of unnecessary and senseless violence.”

Baker, 21, had transferred to Winston-Salem last year from Dean College in Franklin, Mass. He joined the football team as a walk-on, and sat out this past season while redshirting.

Police are investigating the incident. No arrests have been made as of early Saturday afternoon.